Even though I've never experienced that deep of a loss myself-at least not yet-I still felt for Alexis. The way she depicted grief in this book really struck me. There's no way of me saying this without sounding cheesy as fuck but there's a certain quality to her writing that's just so goddamn lovable and warm, at least to me. She's able to deal with dark topics like death in an emotional way while still adding a certain lighthearted charm to it. She has this uncanny ability to make me feel so much for the characters she creates. I don't know what it is about Cynthia Hand, but I've felt it ever since I finished her wonderful Unearthly series. I'm going to tell you right now that this was exactly the YA contemp book I needed. I also didn't like how it was too romance-centric. So yeah, I've been carefully avoiding contemporary YA because I didn't like the whole whymsical approach towards death type thing that's been going on nowadays. I only reread books when they're a series, and I need to catch up on what happened so I can finish said series.Īnyways, I digress. Which I won't, cause I just don't feel like it. I know that once upon a time, I gave TFiOS five stars, but I don't doubt that my opinion would change if I reread it. But with contemporary I don't want anything that's all whymsical and shit. I love fantasy YA, of course it's all I've read in the past several months. When I read contemporary YA, I want something real.

You could argue that that's been a part of contemporary YA for a long while, but I feel like The Fault in Our Stars really ignited it into what it is now.

I've kinda been avoiding contemporary YA because, even though I haven't read many of the new stuff, there seems to be a common thing going on where authors are exploring death in a kinda quirky, lyrical type of way, mixing it in with surrealism and wit and charm and whatnot. When I tell you I was bawling my eyes out in that minibus, I was bawling my fucking eyes out in that goddamn minibus, gurl. Whahahappen wuz, I was on a public transport on the way back home from outta town when I finished this book.

The last time we said goodbye book